Tag Archives: City of Vancouver

Politics

Cortes Island Fire Department instructed all communication with the SRD must come through CAO David Leitch

The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) Board passed a resolution to write a letter instructing Sadhu Johnston, President of the Cortes Island Fire Fighting Association (CIFFA), that his communications with them should come through Chief Administration Officer David Leitch. 

The SRD has not renewed the Cortes Fire Department’s 5 year contract, and instead has them on a month to month basis.

Johnston requested a meeting with Leitch last month but, as he explained to Cortes Currents earlier this week, still has not had the opportunity. 

“We’re not wedded to the way it is, but we don’t really want decisions to be made behind closed doors without the community being able to know about them and have a say. If governance is going to be taken away from Cortes and the decision making for firefighting service is going to be taken away from Cortes, it would be really nice to know that and to be able to be a part of that dialogue,” he said.

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Fire

CIFFA: Will Cortes Island lose its volunteer Fire Department?

The new President of the Cortes Island Fire Fighter’s Association (CIFFA) is not opposed to having a shared fire fighting service in the SRD. When he was Deputy Manager of Vancouver, Sadhu Johnston led the charge in creating a shared water fire service for the Lower Mainland.  

“We had very extensive consultations with other municipalities that needed services, that had structures along the shoreline. I personally went to those city halls, met with those fire chiefs and the city managers. We created a steering committee that got to shape the service and then we chose which boats to purchase based on that input. It was a multiple year effort and it was done really collaboratively. I think that’s the really important part.” 

In regard to the current SRD initiative, he said, “Perhaps what’s missing right now is just being able to all be on the same page about what kind of shared services are needed.” 

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Jobs, Poverty

Vancouver’s Decision to Abandon Living Wage Program Creates Shockwaves

By  Zak Vescera, The Tyee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

In 2017, the City of Vancouver committed to ensuring its employees — and workers for city contractors — were paid enough to live there. 

At the time, Vancouver was  the biggest employer in the country to offer a living wage based on the  cost of rent, food and other necessities. 

“It was the largest living wage  municipality, and it did a tremendous job over the years in encouraging  other businesses to sign on,” said Anastasia French, the director of Living Wage for Families BC.  Then-mayor Gregor Robertson told media it was a way to guarantee  workers “a basic level of opportunity” in an expensive place to live and  work. 

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Fire

Cortes Island Fire Department: Two Opposing Risk Assessments

Two assessments of the Cortes Island Fire Department were released last week. 

Shaun Koopman, Protective Services Coordinator for the Strathcona Regional District (SRD), emailed,“While both reports covered operational aspects, the SRD’s audit was more focused on the governance model. The concerns expressed in the consultant’s report specifically pertained to the liability exposure that the Regional District incurs from the current governance model.”

Cortes Island’s Interim Fire Chief, Eli McKenty, describes them differently. 

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Cost of Climate Change, Energy

B.C. will soon decide the fate of four projects with big climate and biodiversity impacts

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

B.C. Premier David Eby’s newly appointed cabinet is about to decide the fate of a handful of proposed projects,  each of which comes with a slew of implications to biodiversity and  climate. 

While provincial ministers wrestle with the decisions, delegates from across the country and around the world are gathered at COP15,  the United Nations biodiversity conference in Montreal. The aim of the  conference is to secure government commitments to slow the global  biodiversity crisis underway — the crisis is sometimes referred to as  the sixth mass extinction and is the first to be human-caused.

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